1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wireless and wireline voice communication over networks. More specifically, the present invention relates to floor control management between devices engaging in network based, half-duplex instant connect voice communication.
2. The Relevant Technology
During recent years, various forms of mobile communication devices using radio signals have become more widely used. An early example of mobile communication, and one which has been in use for decades, is two-way radio devices, commonly known as “walkie-talkies.” Conventional walkie-talkies have a range of up to several thousand meters and transmit voice signals over a selected radio frequency. A transmitting walkie-talkie can communicate with another, recipient walkie-talkie that is within the transmitting range and is tuned to the selected frequency. Walkie-talkies have been widely used in industrial, construction and recreational settings.
One of the convenient features of walkie-talkies is the ability to immediately initiate communication with recipients without requiring the user who initiates the communication to input a telephone number or to wait while call setup is performed. Instead, the user merely presses a button on the mobile communication device and begins speaking. Any recipient device that is within range and is tuned to the selected frequency immediately receives the voice data. The receiving party can immediately receive the communication without having to respond to a ring or other audible signal, such as those that have been associated with the act of answering a ringing telephone.
A typical walkie-talkie communication session occurs when participating devices are tuned in to a particular radio frequency. The communication session is a half-duplex event, wherein the data can only flow in one direction at a time. In such communication sessions, the right or ability to transmit data is known as “having the floor”. Management of the floor is important in any half-duplex communication session to indicate the direction of data flow and to avoid confusion on part of the participants that might arise if both parties attempt to speak at the same time. In conventional walkie-talkies, the floor is obtained by one of the mobile devices when the user presses the “talk” button on his device. The party who has the floor can speak into the device and transmit the resulting voice data to the recipient. In this sense, the party having the floor is designated herein as being the “sending” party, while the party who does not have the floor is referred to herein as being the “receiving” party.
During the past few years, consumer electronics companies have introduced highly-popular personal walkie-talkies. Such personal walkie-talkies are widely used in recreational and family situations, as well as by industrial and commercial users. The advantages of the newer personal walkie-talkies include lower cost and the ability to easily select from fifty or more communication channels. Personal walkie-talkies do not require the user to enter a telephone number or wait during call setup and the receiving party can immediately receive voice data without having to answer a ringing telephone. However, personal walkie-talkies also operate in half-duplex mode over a selected radio frequency and are characterized by a lack of security, limited range, and the same floor control patterns as conventional walkie-talkies. Nonetheless, personal walkie-talkies have been a successful consumer electronics product.
Cellular or mobile telephones are another example of mobile communications devices whose use has become widespread during recent years. Unlike walkie-talkies, mobile telephones operate over a network using a full-duplex communication channel that uses code-division or time-division multiplexing. Because of the full-duplex nature of the communication, floor control is not a significant issue in mobile telephone communication. Both parties to a mobile telephone call have the ability to simultaneously send and receive voice data at any time during the call. In addition, mobile telephone communication has an essentially unlimited range and is highly secure because of the call setup routines and the multiplexing of the communication channels. Typical mobile telephone communication requires entering a multi-digit telephone number, waiting during call setup, and manually activating the receiving mobile device in response to a ring or other audible signal indicating that a call is incoming.
The convergence of walkie-talkie radio communication and mobile telephone communication is often referred to as “push-to-talk”, which offers a near instant connection and two-way communication between users. Communication can be one-to-one or one-to-many. One example of a push-to-talk system is Nextel's iDEN-based Push to Talk® (also known as Direct Connect™) service that has become very popular over the past several years. Push-to-talk systems may also be implemented using standard voice-over Internet protocol (VoIP) technologies or other IP telephony technologies, wherein voice information is sent in digital form over IP-based data networks. Such push-to-talk systems are hereinafter referred to as “network-based instant connect systems”, and they can be deployed on many types of networks, including wireless and wireline networks. A network-based instant connect call is a telephone call established using a network, but in a way that is designed to give the user the experience of a conventional or personal walkie-talkie call. For instance, in wireless networks, network-based instant connect calls are initiated when the user selects a recipient from a contact list on the mobile device and presses the talk button. Likewise, network-based instant connect calls are received by automatically activating the receiving device for immediate output of voice data without requiring the recipient to manually respond to a ring or other audible signal. Because the network-based instant connect call is typically established over a wireless network, the call requires numbers that identify the participating mobile devices, such as telephone numbers, and a call setup routine. Unlike conventional walkie-talkie communication, network-based instant connect calls have essentially unlimited range and security features of a conventional mobile telephone call.
Although wireless networks on which network-based instant connect calls are typically carried inherently have full-duplex capabilities, floor control is usually moderated so as to mimic the conventional walkie-talkie experience. In particular, the user who presses the talk button on a suitably enabled mobile device obtains the floor and can send voice data until the button is released. The recipient of the voice data who does not have the floor can merely receive the voice data and cannot take the floor until the other party relinquishes the floor.
Since these techniques for floor control in network-based instant connect calls mimic the conventional walkie-talkie user experience, the resulting conversation between the calling parties also suffers from the inherent drawbacks of communicating in the style of a walkie-talkie. In typical wireline and mobile telephone calls, the full-duplex nature of the communication permits the conversing parties to engage in normal, spontaneous two-way conversation, including the patterns of feedback, response, and interruption that are similar to those associated with face-to-face communication. In contrast, network-based instant connect conversations are characterized by successive periods during which the floor is held by alternating parties until such time that these parties relinquish the floor by releasing the talk button. Such conversations do not permit the conversing parties to engage in the two-way speech patterns that are part of normal face-to-face or telephone conversations. Thus, network-based instant connect conversations are somewhat unnatural and difficult, particularly for those who do not have significant experience using walkie-talkies.